Samsung is the top device maker while Google's Android is the top mobile software

A new report by comScore shows that smartphone penetration in the U.S. passed 50 percent for the first time ever, and both Google and Samsung are leading the way.

ComScore, an Internet analytics company that measures the digital world, reported that 119.3 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in the three month period from July 2012-September 2012. This put mobile market penetration past the 50 percent mark for the first time at 51 percent.

Leading the hardware side of this smartphone penetration is Samsung with 26 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers in the three month period ending in September 2012. This was a 0.4 percent jump from the three months ending June 2012. Following Samsung is LG with 17.7 percent and Apple with 17.5 percent. Apple experienced a 2.1 percent increase from the three months ending in June.

On the software end, Google's Android is still the leader with 52.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (a 0.9 percent increase from the three months ending in June 2012). Apple followed with 34.3 percent (up from 32.4 percent from April-June 2012), RIM scored 8.4 percent and Microsoft grabbed 3.6 percent.

The smartphone arena is growing increasingly competitive, especially in recent months due to huge releases like Samsung's Galaxy S III, Apple's iPhone 5 and Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 devices. Microsoft hopes to make its way into third place with software, bumping RIM out of its current position. This shouldn't be too hard, since many government agencies and companies have ditched their BlackBerrys recently.

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates